


Intense is Normal For Us (Stay Where I Can See You)

by i_amthecosmos



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Injury, Jay can't be separated from Carlos, Jay needing Carlos, M/M, They're a little obsessed, co-dependancy, hospital stay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-11
Updated: 2019-08-11
Packaged: 2020-08-19 07:30:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20206027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/i_amthecosmos/pseuds/i_amthecosmos
Summary: RottenKIdNextDoor asked me for a Jaylos story about co-dependency. So here it is. Thanks.





	Intense is Normal For Us (Stay Where I Can See You)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RottenKidNextDoor (PortalofWords)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PortalofWords/gifts).

> RottenKIdNextDoor asked me for a Jaylos story about co-dependency. So here it is. Thanks.

Jay didn’t think much about it at first. It was just a hard hit. He got those all the time. It hurt, but so what. Then he tried to get up and realized his leg was bent funny. _Shit._

“Are you okay?” Carlos was right beside him. Jay tried to reach for him, but Coach Jenkins and the team doc gently nudged him aside. The doctor started holding up fingers, asking how many. Jay tried to answer, but he was looking for Carlos.

“Get an ambulance, he’s going to the hospital,” the doc said, and Jay watched with a kind of numb detachment as they strapped him in, splinting his leg. When they got him on the gurney, he could see Mal, Evie and Carlos. He held out his hand. 

“Sorry, we have to go,” the EMT said. They didn’t even give him a chance to yell for Carlos, just got him in and shut the door. “You’ll see your friends later, don’t worry.”

“Don’t...worry?” Jay was worried. He was terrified. He couldn’t bring Carlos, or any of his friends? How bad was he? Was he going to die? It was just a broken leg, right? He tried to ask questions, but instead he felt his throat close up.

“He’s having trouble breathing. You in a lot of pain, buddy?” Jay couldn’t answer. He couldn’t breathe. He reached out for Carlos, but he wasn’t there. Then they were strapping a mask to his face and injecting him with something, and he grayed out.

Jay came to in the hospital. “Hello, we’re going to look you over and get x-rays-” Jay didn’t let him finish. 

“Why am I here by myself? What’s wrong with me?” He started to panic again, and tried to breathe. 

“Hey, hey, calm down. We don’t allow anyone but family members to be with patients. Do you have one of those with you?” Jay shook his head. “Do you want us to call-”’

“My father’s on the fucking Isle!” The doctor actually took a step back. “Yeah, I’m _that_ Jay. I don’t have any family, they’re not coming. Please get my friends! Just-get Carlos! I’m not going in there until they’re here!” 

Just then, he heard a screech that could only come from Mal, and the sound of three pairs of running feet. Jay flung out an arm without looking and he had Carlos snuggled up under it in a second. “Okay,” Jay said, looking at the startled doctor. “Now you can take me to X-ray.” 

“How did you get here so fast?” Jay said when they were in the X-ray room. They made Carlos stand in the doorway, but they could still talk.

“We basically jumped into Ben’s limo and insisted we be taken here. Loudly. Ben came with us, but he’s in the waiting room. Mal and Evie are too.” Jay laughed a little. He felt so much better now that Carlos was there. His leg hurt like hell, but he could deal with that.

After the X rays were taken, Jay was wheeled into a place with other people separated by curtains. Carlos went with him, glaring at a nurse who tried to crowd him out. Carlos held his hand, and didn’t stop when the doctor came by. 

The doctor, to his credit, didn’t comment. “Jay,” he said. “You’ve got a very bad break, it’s all the way through the bone. We need to cast it. You’re going to be in a cast for at least a month.” He looked at Jay, expecting a reaction. 

“All right,” Jay said, nodding. “I knew it was bad. Do I have to stay the night?” 

“Yes. We want to observe you for a night. I heard you had a strong reaction in the ambulance on your way over.” Jay stared at him, not wanting to say why. Wasn’t it obvious? Didn’t the doctor have someone in his life he couldn’t be separated from? 

“So,” the doctor continued, “We’ll keep you and see how you are. We need to watch out for blood clots and such anyway.” Jay nodded. Carlos had told him about those once. “So we’ll send you to get the cast, and get you a room.”

“Carlos is staying with me tonight.” The doctor looked confused. “He has to, I want him with me. I told you, he’s my family.” 

The doctor hemmed for a minute. “Well, you’re both minors, and also we don’t really have a rule for non-married partners, of any age...”

“Carlos, get Ben.” Carlos kissed his cheek and then headed down the hall. Jay glared at the doctor. “I told you, he’s all the family I have. Us being under 18 has nothing to do with it. I don’t understand why everyone’s acting like this.” 

The doctor looked confused, and then Carlos was back with Ben. Ben got it all straightened out quickly, and Carlos was right by Jay as they went to get his cast on. It was good to be friends with the King.

The cast part didn’t hurt much, although they did give him some painkillers finally. The cast was from his ankle to his knee, and Carlos seemed impressed. “Fuck Carlos, this thing is gonna itch.” He was whispering, but the nurse looked offended. Auradon had some hangups about cursing. 

“I’ll scratch it for you,” Carlos said, and then they giggled until they were sent back to a room. They hooked Jay up to a bunch of machines, which made him nervous. “Hey, don’t worry.” Carlos started pointing to them. This one is to check your heartbeat,” Carlos said. “This is an alarm to call the nurse. This is an IV drip with medications. See, none of this is too bad.”

“Okay,” Jay said. Right then, Mal, Evie and Ben came in. Mal had brought chocolates, and Evie Carlos’s laptop and Jay’s phone. Ben had a plant with him. “Uh, thanks.” He didn’t know how to keep a plant alive, but it was nice. 

Carlos took the plant and put it on the bedside table. “Thanks for helping us out,” Jay said. “We owe you one.” 

“No problem.” Ben looked at the two of them. “I can go get Carlos a blanket. That chair should be able to hold you.” 

“No, it’ll be fine,” Carlo said. He was standing by Jay and holding his hand. “I’ll just get into bed with Jay.”

“They’re going to frown on that,” Ben said. He looked like he was trying to break something to them gently. “For one thing, you could jostle Jay’s leg and hurt him. For another, the nurses will be in and out all night checking Jay to see if he’s okay. And you might be in their way.” 

Carlos and Jay stared at each other, then Carlos looked at the chair. “I’m not used to sleeping without him,” Carlos said. “But okay, fine.” He moved the chair closer while Ben got a blanket. Carlos got comfortable in the chair with the blanket over him, and did his homework on his laptop. 

Jay listened to music on his phone while Carlos worked. He was fine with Carlos just being there, at least for now. But after a while, he looked over. “Hey.”

“Yeah?” Carlos looked up at him. “Are you in pain?”

“Not really, these painkillers are pretty good.” Jay looked down at him. “I’m just glad you’re here.” 

“Me too,” Carlos said. Jay looked at him, and then closed his eyes. 

…

Jay got out of the hospital the next day, with a pair of crutches. He hated them, but showing up to school in a cast turned out not to be so bad. Apparently there was a tradition of people signing them as some kind of get well ritual. 

“I knew you’d like the attention,” Carlos said. Jay laughed. 

“It’s nice.” 

He also came back to rumors about him and Carlos-how they’d threatened the doctors in order for Carlos to stay in Jay’s room. Jay shook his head. “Why would we have to do that when the King was with us? Kept it simple, folks.”

“There’s no need to resort to threats when you’ve got that up your sleeve,” Carlos quipped, and Jay put his arm around him, keeping him close. Some girls cooed over them, but a lot of people excused themselves. For some reason, Jay and Carlos made some people uncomfortable. 

Turned out, Fairy Godmother was among them. They got called in after classes, because she wanted to talk to them. 

“Gentlemen,” she said. “I just wanted to talk to you know. The closeness of your relationship concerns me a little. I don’t have a problem with you both being boys, but sometimes I think it borders on obsessive.”

“Okay,” Carlos said, face blank. “What do you mean?”

FG cleared her throat. “Well, you both seem to be unable to function without the other. You have great concern for each other. And from what I heard, Jay had a panic attack in the ambulance because you two were separated. Is that true?”

“Is that what they said?” Jay wasn’t denying it, he just hadn’t heard that before. “They seemed to think I was reacting from pain.” Jay looked over at Carlos. “And I thought that Auradon was a big fan of love. What’s the issue?”

“The paramedics changed their opinion after they heard how you insisted on Carlos being with you at the hospital.” FG looked flustered now. “And well, we are, but not to the point where people nearly pass out because they’re separated. I don’t blame you for wanting Carlos there, but the rules stated...”

“The rules were made by people who could expect to have other family members care for them,” Carlos said. “I don’t know how many times we have to keep saying this, but Jay is my family. And vice versa. And Mal and Evie too, but especially Jay. It doesn’t matter what our age is or that we’re not related by blood. Okay?” Jay looked over and smiled. 

“See, why wouldn’t I want to have him around all the time? He’s a genius.” Carlos leaned in, and put his face in Jay’s neck. Jay kissed the top of his head. “And I mean, isn’t that normal? Doesn’t everyone do this to some extent?”

“Oh.” FG had to think for a minute. “Most of us have strong bonds, yes. But we believe that they can go too far and become imbalanced. And how you reacted in the ambulance is a good example of that. It’s called codependency.” 

Carlos moved his face so he could stare at FG. “Wait. So that’s a problem?”

“Yes. The idea is that people can grow so dependent, they can’t function alone. What’s going to happen when you two move on with your lives? What if you go to separate universities? I understand wanting to be together when one of you is hurt. I really do. But what happens later?”

Jay and Carlos looked at each other for a long minute. Then Jay turned back to Fairy Godmother. “I see what you mean,” he started. “But look at it from our side. We were born in a place where showing affection could get your killed.” FG turned pale. “Then we came here, and Auradon really preaches love. You are all very fond of the concept.” Jay took a deep breath-he was starting to get annoyed.

Carlos came in then like a champ. “So now that we’re allowed to show how much we mean to each other, and help each other, it’s very strange to us that you’re telling us to slow down. I mean, do you really think we can put on the brakes now? We have no idea what the proper amount of caring is. How would we?” Jay nodded and intertwined his fingers with Carlos’s, staring at the headmistress.

Fairy Godmother looked at the two of them, then her desk. “You’re right. I didn’t consider...cultural differences.” Jay thought that was putting it mildly. “I might give you some things to read about the subject, but I’ll be more understanding in the future.” That was one thing Jay liked about the Headmistress-she never said ‘I’ll try’, she said ‘I will’. He smiled at her, and she nodded at him. “Maybe we could all learn more about this.”

“That is a point, about the future,” Carlos said. “But right now I’m going to walk with Jay and help him with his bags, then do my homework while he elevates his leg. And I’m not going to feel guilty about it. I just want him to know I’m with him, in everything.” 

FG looked at them, sympathetic. “Well, Jay is hurt, so this is a good time to take care of him. But maybe lean on your other friends too.” Jay nodded, since that was probably reasonable. He knew the girls and Ben wanted to help. “You two are excused. I’ll find some things for you to read later.” She got up and left the room.

“You really think she’s going to give us homework on trying not to be together 24-7?” Jay was walking with his crutches the long-ass way back to their room. “That’s a waste of time.” 

“You never know, we might need it someday.” Carlos was holding his book bag and keeping an eye on him. “We probably will go to different schools later.” Jay groaned-his leg hurt and they had just finally made it to their room.

“Don’t even say that,” Jay said. “I don’t even like thinking about it.” He turned on the TV, trying to find something interesting to watch. Auradon entertainment tended to be very sappy. 

“We probably will, though.” Carlos was not going to let it go. “You want to go somewhere for Tourney, and I’m looking at science programs, and they’re not always in the same schools. So it’s an issue.”

“We’ll worry about it then, okay?” Jay felt himself getting nervous. “I’m not going to apologize for needing you..” Carlos looked over at him, and moved so he was sitting on Jay’s bed, holding his hand. 

“You don’t need to apologize,” Carlos said. “But maybe being as close as we are isn’t needed. We’re a lot safer here. We’re in a good place in our lives. Our parents can’t hurt us, there’s no gangs. Maybe we don’t have to be with each other every second. It’s just something to think about.”

“Well, I don’t like thinking about it, so no.” Jay’s leg started to throb. “Hand me my pain meds, please.” Carlos handed them over without a word. Jay opened the bottle while Carlos handed him a bottle of water. “What would I do without you?”

Carlos didn’t say anything, just looked down at the carpet. Jay gulped his medication and half the bottle of water. “Okay, stop. You’re letting this get to you. I want you to take care of me. You know me, I always try to act like I can do everything myself. But I can’t. Don’t you see how special this makes you?”

“Well yeah,” Carlos said. “But I don’t want you to have panic attacks, or be so upset you can’t even think about the future. I don’t like to admit it, but FG is right this time.” Jay looked over at Carlos, wondering how he could even talk about this calmly. 

“She has no idea what our lives were like,” Jay said. “And what...do you _want_ to be separate from me? You’re okay with that?” Jay could feel the panic in his chest again. “Carlos, don’t. Don’t leave me, I need you.” 

“I’m not going to leave you!” Jay’s panic stopped in the face of Carlos actually shouting at him. He never did that. “Jay, just because I’m willing to accept that we might go to separate schools for a while doesn’t mean I want to break up with you. I don’t!” Carlos looked at him, frustration and pain in his eyes. 

“I’m sorry,” Jay said. He felt trapped by Carlos’s gaze. He’d messed up. Carlos let go of his hand and moved over to his bed. “Carlos, come back.” Carlos ignored him, opening one of his textbooks and not looking up. “Carlos please.” Normally he could handle doing different things in the same room, but now Carlos seemed to be ignoring him on purpose. 

Jay didn’t say anything else. If Carlos was giving him the silent treatment, he’d just try to ignore him back. It was made harder by the fact that his eyes were watering. He brushed the tears aside, and got a book he was supposed to read for class. He tried to read it, but his vision was blurry. 

“Oh my God.” Carlos came back over, and pulled the book out of Jay’s hands. “I can’t believe you’re crying.” 

“Shut up,” Jay said. But Carlos just shook his head, then kissed Jay’s cheek. Jay sighed, closing his eyes. 

“I’m sorry you got upset, but this is what I mean. I’m just saying, read whatever FG finds for us, okay? It wouldn’t hurt to learn how to do things apart sometimes?”Jay tried to think about it, see it from Carlos’s side, but he still felt nervous.

“We do though,” Jay said. “But I always know where you are.” It was true, he had Carlos’s schedule memorized, and if he wasn’t where he was supposed to be, he’d damn sure find out where he was. He thought everyone did that. Looked like he was wrong. 

“Yeah. And mostly I like that. But I can’t have you falling apart because I’m away for an hour. Remember, I need you too.” Carlos moved carefully, trying not to jostle his leg while lying next to him. “This is a little extreme.” 

“I guess I didn’t notice,” Jay said. “But come to think of it, most of the people in Auradon don’t act like this, I guess.” In fact, for a society that preached love, he mostly saw vapid crushes and gold digging. It was a disappointment, really. He’d expected better. There were all just kids, though.

“Yeah,” Carlos said. He put his head on Jay’s shoulder, and Jay played with his hair. “I know we became like this because we had to. I know we did it for protection. But, things are different now.” Jay kissed Carlos’s forehead. 

“I remember when it changed between us,” Jay said. “We were running away from some trouble I’d gotten us into.” Carlos smiled. 

“Yeah, you almost got us killed. We had to climb up to a roof and then lay there flat until they passed. Then you kissed me.” 

“I felt bad about it, I was trying to apologize. But then I didn’t want to stop kissing you.” Jay remembered how Carlos made him feel, safe and looked after. He’d never felt like that before. It made him want to kiss Carlos right then. So he did. “Ow.”

“Dammit, don’t turn like that, you’re putting pressure on your leg. I’m going to move to the other side.” Carlos carefully got up, and then got back in, cuddling Jay carefully. “Now stay still and keep that leg up.” 

Jay smiled and tried not to move. Carlos was right with him, and Jay went back to his reading. 

FG did as she said and gave them some copies from a book to look over after class. When Jay went to his room without Carlos (Jay was on limited class time due to his leg), he read it. Huh. A lot of them didn’t apply to him, but the others...shit.

He sent Mal a quick text, and soon she was at his door. “What’s wrong? Do you need to go to the doctor again?” Jay shook his head, and handed her the sheet. 

“Just let me know how many of these relate to me.” 

Mal glared at him. “Really, this is an emergency? Okay fine.” She started reading the list. “Uh...fear of abandonment, feeling responsible for your partner’s happiness, needs approval, slow to trust. That’s four out of ten, just based on what I observe. And I think Carlos has at least three or four of his own.”

“What do you think? Are we crazy?”

“Honestly, considering how we lived on the Isle? I would have expected worse. You two have a functional relationship. So you can’t be separated, that might not even take a therapist. Or it might, I don’t know.” 

“Yeah Mal, that helps.” Jay lapsed into sullen silence. After a minute, he looked back at Mal. “I want to text him right now. And I know he’s in class.”

“That’s one thing you two can do, get used to having different activities or friends,” Mal said. “I know Carlos doesn’t actually enjoy Tourney like you do. Maybe let him do something else.” Jay felt his hand fist the sheets, as he stared into the distance. 

“Goddammit Jay, you look like you want to punch something, and all I said was have different interests,” Mal came over and pulled a chair up. “Carlos loves you, idiot. He’s not going to stop loving you. You can’t lose him. Not to anyone.” 

“You don’t know that,” Jay couldn’t look at her. “It was different before. But now we’re in Auradon, and we’re fucking surrounded by people with money and good families and all this stuff I’ll never have. And they fucking love Carlos here, he’s so sweet and smart. It’s like he’s their token nice VK. Someone’s going to scoop him up one day.”

Mal let out a long sigh. “No, they won’t. Carlos will never abandon you, you hear me? As long as you don’t drive him away. Which your obsession might do. If you want to keep him, then let him be sometimes.” 

Jay played with the sheets. Mal put the pages on the bed next to Jay. “Just...get a hold of yourself. Jesus. We’ve dealt with so much. We can learn to handle not being together all the time. Okay. Now I’m going to my room. Do you want anything before I go?” 

“Hand me a water bottle. Carlos keeps some near his bed.” Mal got him one. “Okay, see you.” 

“Bye.” She closed the door a little hard, probably out of habit. Mal was learning not to slam doors and be obnoxious. It wasn’t easy. Nothing about Auradon was.

Jay drank some of the water, then closed his eyes. He needed to rest.

When Carlos came back, Jay didn’t say much. He listened to Carlos talk about his classes, and after a bit, handed him the sheets from FG. Carlos read them over carefully, then moved a chair next to the bed. Jay felt the kiss on his forehead, but didn’t react. “Okay,” Carlos said. “Which one of the suggestions do you want to try first?”

Jay blinked. Carlos wasn’t angry at him, or acting like this was the worst thing in the world. “Well, my answer would be ‘none of them’ so maybe you should pick.” 

“I still vote for different interests. And maybe some time spent apart. You don’t really need me to work out with you, we can do it at different times. And it’s okay if you make other friends too.” Jay had pretty much refused close relationships with AK’s. Lonni was an exception because she just wouldn’t take no for an answer. But she was really it.

“I don’t know what I’d talk to them about,” Jay said. But he didn’t say no. “You think I can do this?” 

Carlos squeezed his hand. “Yeah. Long as you remember that we’re doing this to make us stronger. It’s not a punishment. Okay?” Jay looked over and nodded. “Okay. Well, you’ve been alone a while. Do you need anything?”

“Get my crutches,” Jay said. “I need to go to the bathroom.” Carlos went to get them as Jay slowly moved around. Carlos helped him off the bed, and Jay kissed him. “Thank you,” he said. He limped his way to the bathroom. When he was done, he washed up. “I’m hungry,” he said. “Can you call for food?” 

“I should’ve brought something from the kitchen,” Carlos said, but he got his phone and ordered. “I got sandwiches this time.” Jay grinned. 

“What would I do without you?” Jay hadn’t been thinking, but then he caught himself. “Hey. Don’t take that too seriously.” He didn’t need another lecture today. He’d agreed to try.

“No problem. But next time you order. Your phone works too.” Jay smiled, then got back on the bed. Carlos collected his crutches, leaning them on the wall. Carlos moved so he was next to Jay. They kissed for a minute, Jay playing with Carlos’s hair. “I love you. Don’t worry, we can work things out.” 

“Maybe.” Jay didn’t want Carlos to worry about him. When their sandwiches arrived, they ate in silence. Jay felt content, with Carlos next to him. They didn’t need to say anything.

The next few days were weird for Jay. Carlos started going places without giving him much forewarning, but texting him to let Jay know he was safe when he got there. Jay knew this was fair, but it still drove him crazy. He also couldn’t go many places with his leg, so he kept begging other people to spend time with him.

“I can see that. The timing for this experiment isn’t the best.” Evie was there, and painting Jay’s nails black. Jay asked her to, wanting to show Carlos later. “But Carlos is just looking out for you. Having emotional breakdowns doesn’t suit you anyway.”

“At least I care about someone,” Jay said. “I never thought I would.” Evie made a soothing noise as she put the top coat on. “Well, you were there, you get it. Carlos wants me to make more Auradon friends, but it’s so hard to relate to them. They talk about going on vacations with their families and how many clothes they bought and I’m just like...” Jay trailed off. 

“You have to work to find common ground, I agree,” Evie said. “But it can be done. Most of the students here mean well.” Evie started on his other hand. “But you have lots of admirers. You could turn some of them into actual friends.” 

Jay nodded, and tried to think of a person he could spend more time with. “Aziz doesn’t make me want to smack him much.” 

“See? Positive thinking.” Then Evie forced Jay to put his hand into a little dryer as she finished up the last one. 

It was hard. Jay did reach out, and tried making friends with Aziz and some other students. He went with sports as a common ground, and it worked better than he though. He and Carlos spent less time together during the day. It scared the shit out of Jay, but he adjusted. At night though, he didn’t want to let Carlos out of his sight. 

“Come on. Gotta take a shower.” Carlos was standing at the foot of the bed, arms crossed.

“Leave the door open,” Jay said, and Carlos rolled his eyes.

“You just want to see my ass.” But Carlos left the door open. 

Jay did his homework, but he would have been lying if he said he didn’t peek. 

They slept in the same bed that night. Jay played with Carlos’s hair. “Love you,” he said. 

“I know,” Carlos said back, smirking. “Love you too.” He leaned in.

Jay returned the kiss Carlos gave him. “So, how fucked up am I, in your opinion?” Carlos laughed, his face lighting up with it. 

“Pretty fucked up. But we all are. And we’re getting better.” Carlos leaned his head on Jay’s shoulder. 

“Getting better. Yeah.” Jay closed his eyes. Carlos had faith in him. Maybe things wouldn’t be so bad.


End file.
